In a standard flight operation, flight crews are expected to follow a set of standard procedures to check aircraft operational status. These procedures are listed together in the form of a checklist, which includes specific tasks that assist the flight crew to verify the aircraft status and manage aircraft systems for safe operations. The goal of electronic checklist is to reduce the flight crew workload by visually providing the information that will be required during execution of the checklist procedures. During a high stress, high workload situation, flight crew members could potentially overlook an important electronic checklist task that is tied to a particular phase of flight. However, the checklist procedures are independent and the flight crew can access the checklist procedures irrespective of the phase of flight. Commonly used electronic checklist systems do not restrict the flight crew from entering into the next phase of flight without completing the checklist procedures of the current phase of flight. It is possible that flight crew members could complete electronic checklist tasks outside of the appropriate phase of flight, simply to complete the task and check it off the list.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a mechanism for informing a flight crew of critical tasks associated with a particular phase of flight. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.